Tag Archive: Fox

For starters Alan Moore’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is coming to Fox television. The graphic novel series has already been adapted into a terrible movie starring Sean Connery as Alan Quartermain. But Moore has famously hated any adaptations of his work, including “V for Vendetta” and “Watchmen”. Well he’s not likely to change his mind now because “Green Lantern” writer Michael Green will serve as writer and show runner.

In other comic book movie news, Vin Diesel (“Fast and Furious 6”) confirms he met with Marvel Studios about an unknown project:

“Marvel meeting today, Diesel writes. “Only the people in the room can tell you what was discussed…P.s. Thanks to Our page, for pushing to make it happen… you know I get tunnel vision with my work… and after that meeting today… wow!”

He also posted a photo of him in front of an Avengers comic cover featuring Giant Man. But he also once posted a photo of Vision, which me managed to include in this post. Could he join Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers 2”?

It was supposed to be one of the most competitive weekends this summer, but Memorial Day weekend saw “Fast and Furious 6” dominate. The film earned an estimated $96 million over the three day weekend and $120 million over four days. “The Hangover Part III” opened to less than half of that with a $41 million three day start and now has a five day start of $63 million. “Epic” is off to a $42 million four day start.

It wasn’t so long ago that Marvel Studios got the rights to “DareDevil” back from Fox, who made a 2003 film starring Ben Affleck. Now the studio has gotten the rights to “Ghost Rider” from Sony, who made a pair of films starring Nicolas Cage. Perhaps these will be some of Marvel’s plans to rotate new heroes into its phases?

Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike”) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Looper”) have worked together on “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” and “Stop-Loss”. You can add a third movie to that list, though this one will be far different. The two are set to star in a remake of “Guys & Dolls”, which is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning stage play. From Firstshowing.net: The story follows Nathan Detroit (Tatum) who bets his friend Sky Masterson (Gordon-Levitt) that he can’t get a wholesome female missionary to go to Havana with him. But what he doesn’t tell him is that the winnings from this bet would fund a floating craps game in a town full of gamblers during the 20s.

Ever since “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, there’s been talk of a Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (“Zombieland”) wrote the script, but while Hugh Jackman will put the claws on again for “The Wolverine”, Deadpool has been dead on arrival. Reynolds said it’s been a difficult process to get studios to sign on for a hard R-rated film and they’re not willing to water down the film. And, Reynolds said the film would address the character’s appearance in Origins.

“I don’t think you can [tie-in to X-Men Origins: Wolverine], because that character would really sully that whole world. The script is one rewrite away from Deadpool jumping across the desk at the studio executive and attacking him.

I’ve always wanted to do the movie just if only because Deadpool would get to do his own movie trailer. So that’s a thing that we were dying to do and we would love to be a part of that. I don’t know how it would fit though, no. In the current iteration of the script, it doesn’t address ‘Wolverine’ – though it does address Deadpool’s appearance in ‘Wolverine.’ Deadpool was not happy with Deadpool in ‘Wolverine.’ He has a sort of a WTF!? moment with that,” Reynolds told Empire.

I can see why this would be a tough sell. It’s very meta, and would be hard for audiences to embrace. But let’s hope he gets a shot. Reynolds needs to make us forget “Green Lantern” somehow.

Chris Hemsworth, brother of Liam Hemsworth who starred in “The Expandables 2” and most well known as Thor, said in a recent interview he’d like to see Jean-Claude Van Damme in “The Avengers 2”. Now JCVD has responded and said not only would he be up for a role, he has some ideas in mind: Silver Surfer and Doc Savage. First, in NO WAY could I see him as Silver Surfer. Second, the rights belong to Fox, not Disney and Marvel. Second, Doc Savage is only a slightly more realistic role I could see him in. I’d say someone like Punisher (Frank Castle) would be more suited for him, but I’d rather see Thomas Jane return to the role.

After being a mere months away from its original April 5 release date, Fox is delaying “The Heat” until June 28. Probably hoping for a “Bridesmaids” type run at the box office, the film will go against “White House Down” and “Kick-Ass 2”. “The Heat” stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

While “Iron Man 3” is set to be a big blockbuster this summer, “Thor: Dark World” is a little more mysterious. Chris Hemsworth is of course back, Natalie Portman is returning as Jane and so is Tom Hiddleston as Loki. But director Kenneth Branagh did not return and “Game of Thrones” director Alan Taylor is in.

Here’s what producer Craig Kyle said about the film:

“By bringing director Alan Taylor into the mix, with his expertise on ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Game of Thrones,’ we came up with a take that allows us to get more into the nooks and crannies of Asgard and its people. We spend more time on the ground with the commoners, as opposed to in the palace.”

We do know that Christopher Eccleston is playing Malekith and leading the Dark Elves and that a second villain named Algrim the Strong plays a big role. Kyle also said in the interview that the film will open with the Marauders invading Asgard. Now, the Marauders show up in X-Men stories a lot and, according to some sources, also appear as human terrorists and Hawkeye and Gwen Stacey team up to stop them. Which means unless a miracle deal happens between Disney, Fox and Sony they will likely be very different than what they are in the comics.

Director Judd Apatow has been quite profitable for Universal, signing a deal with the studio and allowing him to make such R-rated hits like “40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up” and most recently “This is 40”. Now Fox may have found its Apatow. Fox has signed a deal with director Paul Feig who directed the hit comedy “Bridesmaids” and the upcoming “The Heat” starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. It’ll be interesting to see of Feig can replicate the success that Apatow has had.

It looks like that’s what Fox’s consultant Mark Millar wants you to think. In an interview with SciFiNow, Millar had this to say about the upcoming reboot, which is being directed by Josh Trank (“Chronicle”):

“Chronicle, if you think about it, was similar to Fantastic Four in that it was a bunch of people who were transformed into something more than human – that turned out almost his calling card to come and do something like Fantastic Four.

“What I wasn’t expecting actually was just how funny and likeable he could make this as well as getting the more awesome moments on screen – I use awesome in the traditional British sense and not the California sense awesome, you know? The Ridley Scott moments, and the Fantastic Four really are jaw-dropping in the same way you feel when you saw Alien for the first time. There’s some moments in this – not to be specific – that are actually gonna be phenomenal on screen and stuff you haven’t seen in a superhero movie before.”

No word on casting yet. The first two “Fantastic Four” movies, which starred Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis and more were painfully corny and a wasted opportunity, Hopefully Trank is up to the task for a big budget adaptation.